after-Christmas shopping: wrapping paper and holiday cards

I made a leap of faith today, when I did a bit of after-Christmas sale shopping. There are certain things that I buy on sale after Christmas, and wrapping paper is one of them, because I love it and yet I think it costs too much. I tend to have pretty packages under the tree, and they are typically very grown-up looking--lacking in cartoon reindeer and elves. This year, I didn't have a single roll of kid paper, having run out of my Spongebob Squarepants paper last year. (Yes, that would be paper I bought for M's presents, since he is really just a big kid.) Anyway, I was at K-Mart today, sorting through the lovely tubes of papery goodness, and I automatically discarded a three-pack with cute Santas and gaily wrapped presents... but then I stopped. Next year, there is a very good chance that I will be wrapping up more presents for small children than usual. Next year, I may have a need to have Santa-exclusive wrapping paper. (Okay, so a six-month old baby will not connect the dots and find out the 'truth' about Santa because I wrapped a present in the same paper that Santa used, but if you knew me at all you would know that this is NOT something that I would be able to bring myself to do.) So, I bought Santa paper. For Ducky. It sounds dumb, but it was kind of a big step. That's a very long range plan for me, right now. Since we're planning on beginning to buy other stuff next month, though, I figured that some generic wrapping paper was a pretty small thing in the relative scheme of things.

Speaking of things that I buy on sale after Christmas, I sent out a few cool Christmas cards this year. (I had a few different choices, so some people got normal cards, at least.) I actually paid more for these cards last year than any other cards, ever, because I thought they were so clever. They had a scratch-and-play game on the front, and it made a reference to Santa knowing if you've been bad or good. There are four silver circles, so you scratch off one and see if you've been Naughty or Nice or whatever. When I got them out this year and started working on them, M looked at one and said, "I don't get it. What are you supposed to do?" So there was clue number one. Obviously, I didn't do any scratching because that would just ruin a card. On Christmas Eve, my cousin Rae called to talk to everyone, since she couldn't be there. And, guess what! Her card wouldn't scratch! So apparently, I sent out a batch of nonsense Christmas cards with a game that cannot be understood and a broken scratch-off game. Woot. I am really rocking with the holiday spirit this year. I feel like such a dweeb.

I bought next year's cards today, and you'll be glad to know that there was nothing clever about them. I am going to have to accept that I am not cool enough for the clever. At least none of my international cards have come back to me for not putting a country on them again... yet.